The present invention relates to toilet odor venting devices, and is directed more particularly to a toilet odor venting apparatus which can be used with toilets of various sizes, configurations and types without making major modifications to those toilets.
Prior to the present invention there have been a number of attempts to eliminate the unpleasant odors produced in connection with the use of a toilet in a closed room. One class of these attempts, described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,297,935 (Baither), U.S. Pat. No. 2,603,797 (Baither), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,782 (Sim), use suction assemblies which draw malodorous air from a toilet bowl, through the holes of the flush ring thereof, and eject them from the room by venting them into the floor drain of the toilet or into a pressure relief pipe located in the wall of the room. While venting devices of this class are at least partially effective, they have the disadvantage that they must either be built into a new toilet at the time of its construction, or be incorporated into an existing toilet by making extensive modifications thereto.
Another class of attempts to eliminate toilet odors includes retrofitable venting devices which draw malodorous air from the toilet through a specially designed toilet seat or through an inlet which fits between the toilet seat and the toilet bowl. Venting devices of this type are described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,728,088 (Gudish), U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,361 (Sanstrom), U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,262 (Quaintance, Sr.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,705 (Ragusa). While venting devices of this type are also at least partially effective, they have the disadvantage that they are cumbersome, visually conspicuous, and spoil the appearance of the toilet.
Still another class of attempts to eliminate toilet odors includes venting devices which are relatively inconspicuous because at least some of their constituent parts are located out of sight in the body or tank of the toilet. Venting devices of this type are described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,972,774 (Hartwell), U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,370 (Arnold) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,079 (Sowards). While also somewhat effective, devices of this class have the disadvantage that they are designed to be installed in a toilet at the time of its manufacture. Another disadvantage of odor venting devices of this type is that they bring AC line power in close proximity to the toilet and therefore expose the user thereof to a risk of shock or injury.
Many of the above-discussed venting devices, including the venting device disclosed in my above-cited prior patent application, are specifically intended for use with gravity actuated toilets, i.e., toilets in which the flushing action is produced by the action of gravity on a body of flush water that is stored in a tank at atmospheric pressure. This is particularly true in the case of venting devices, such as those described in the above-cited Baither '935 and Sim patents, and in my above-cited prior patent application, which draw in malodorous air through the openings in the flush ring of the toilet. This is because only toilets of this type include internal passages or conduits that can be used by the venting devices to vent malodorous air without using unsightly external components and conduits, such as those shown in the above-cited Sanstrom and Gudish patents.
More particularly, prior to the present invention, venting devices of the subject type could not be used with toilets of the pressure-actuated type, i.e., toilets in which the flushing action is produced by the release of a body of flush water that is stored under pressure in a pressure tank that is concealed within an outer tank having an appearance similar to the tank of a gravity actuated toilet. This is because toilets of the pressure-actuated type do not have internal passages or ducts through which malodorous air may be drawn from the toilet bowl through the flush ring. Thus, prior to the present invention, the use of venting devices with pressure actuated toilets required the presence of unsightly external components and conduits.